Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve heart failure services.

Heart failure is a key priority in the NHS Long Term Plan and NHS England and NHS Improvement are taking action to improve heart failure services in line with this.

One of the ambitions of the NHS Long Term Plan is to raise awareness of the symptoms of heart failure and to ensure early and rapid access to diagnostic tests and treatment.

NHS England and NHS Improvement has a programme of work to support this ambition, overseen by the National Clinical Director for Heart Disease and supported by an Expert Advisory Group of clinical experts from across the country. This work remains a priority during the COVID-19 pandemic.